A Twist of Melody
by momokokoro-chan
Summary: Meet, Miku, Len, Rin, Kaito, Meiko and Luka. They are your standard high-school students. …At least they think they are. With their varying personalities and relations,one thing will unite the gifted. But what could that be? It's your typical high-school story with a twist.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:  
**

**Ugh... I hope this is going to be a long, fluffy story with a just an inch of drama. I have high expectations, but lately Momo has been... not at all confident. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think. I'd also like to say a special thanks to my lovely friend UnsubUnicorn, and the co-author of our collaboration story 'Unlawful Relations' (which is easily found with a quick search) with our collaboration account 'unsubandmomo' (originality ftw). I'd also like to change my profile around. So, if you beautiful people could leave a list (I don't mind how large) of questions you have for me. The weirder the better!  
**

**M xx  
**

* * *

**Pitch Perfect**

**Meet, Miku, Len, Rin, Kaito, Meiko and Luka. They are your standard high-school students. …At least they think they are. With their varying personalities and relations,one thing will unite the gifted. But what could that be? It's your typical high-school story with a twist.**

* * *

Here, we'll begin following the lives of 7 talented students. They all go to Greenslate Community High-school, the local secondary school for the younger people of the small town of Greenslate. They are all gifted and highly talented, but none of them know it.

Firstly, there is the popular, super-smart Hatsune Miku. Member of the school choir, debating club, softball, tennis, badminton and swimming team and the current school captain. With her forever-popular knee-long teal twin-tails that she secretly hates, her aspiration is to become an immensely wealthy doctor.

Next in line is Kagamine Rin. With a very irritable personality, quick temper and mean nature, she makes your perfect bully. Rin is generally well behaved, but younger and weaker foes will not go unscathed under her watch. She has an unspeakably excessive soft spot for sarcasm, which is her favourite thing.

Very close to Rin's personality falls Kagamine Len. You'll notice that their surnames are the same, but they are not related. However, they share the same uncanny appearance and personality with each other. Len and Rin are very, very close friends, and are frequently mistaken for siblings – or more often – however is a player, with many romantic happenings with many different girls. He doesn't favour breaking peoples hearts and feels it's more of an annoyance than a pleasure – but he persists to do so anyway.

Thirdly is Luka, a poor girl who lives alone without a Mother or Father. No one knows that her parents are dead except for her. She often makes façades for them in an effort to 'keep them alive'. Not even the teachers are aware she lives alone and supports herself on the minimum wage, and Luka makes fake notes from her parents with slightly more professional and different to her handwriting. She also lies that they works very long hours, though even before their death they didn't work a day in their life. Luka's grades are average, but she works very hard and studies constantly. Her dream is to become a successful novelist.

Next is Meiko, a rebellious girl who has repeated Year 12 twice. She frequently wags school and as many classes possible, and hangs out in the car park a few blocks up with the other delinquents, whether they're form her school or not. Meiko is a heavy smoker and drinker, and parades in revealing Gothic and emo clothing. Even if she attends class, she doesn't listen, and is usually drugged anyway. Her signature is her dark red lipstick. Not only is the lipstick 'dark' red, its _dark _red. It's barely red and more a blackish-brown,but a sexy and sleek red still glimmers through the darkness. She owns her own motorbike and left her parents at age 15. Meiko has no dream, but she does have a rather big wish to have a decent and kind relationship someday. An unlikely happening with the crowd she hangs out with, at the moment anyway.

And lastly is Kaito. He is your average high school student with the slight exception of electric blue hair and eyes, and has nothing much to do with the other members. However, he has great grades and a smart girlfriend. For now, the lucky girl is for you to guess. Who do you think it is?

* * *

Today is everyone's favourite day: Monday.

Just kidding. No-one's favourite day is Monday, _especially _not Rin's.

"I wish there was no school," whines Rin to no one in particular as she walks down the long hill to Greenslate Community High School. The hill is long and sloppy, and parallel Main Road, the CBD of the small town of Greenslate.

Waiting at the Entrance – a fashioned brick and stone arch – was Len, her best friend. Once Rin spots him, she gallops excitedly down the hills to greet him.

"Nice to see you, Ri-chan," Says Len, throwing is arm over his shoulder once Rin is next to him.

"Right back at you, Le-nii."

Len's nickname 'Le-nii' is the first syllable of his name 'Le', and '-nii' an honorific for one's older brother. However, although Rin does see Len as a brotherly figure, this is actually Rin's version of Len's English name he got while exchanging with an American student. His English name was 'Lenny', which was as close to his real name as they could get.

The bell chimes shrilly just as Len and Rin enter the school gates, and swarms of children scrabble into the corridor. Len and Rin take their time, and trip a few people on their way.

Len and Rin are not particularly popular, but with their mean-spirited nature, their no force to be reckoned with, and are usually not associated with 'popularity' but with 'people who you are most afraid of'. Rin and Len take pride in this listing, of course.

The first period that Len and Rin share is English, which they come to 5 minutes late.

"Len and Rin, you're here," says the teacher, snarling. "What do you have to say for yourselves?"

Len and Rin shrug in unison.

"Well, in that case, why don't we start that with the first warning of the class?" Says the teacher unamused.

"Warnings are for children," Len says unemotionally.

"Well, that is the way your acting, isn't it? Close enough, I'd say." The teacher replies.

_She thinks she__'__s just the best-damned thing in the world, doesn__'__t she? _Thinks Len.

"Whatever," Rin says, and leads Len to their usual vacant seats.

"Today in English we'll be revising and learning about dictation."

_Dictation. Dic-tation. _Len smiles as he tries to control himself from laughing.

"Len, dictation has nothing to do with that, so get your mind out of the gutter," hisses the teacher, noticing his smirk. The class laughs and whispers about Len. Len rolls his eyes and sits back in his chair as Rin looks to him with a large grin on her face.

One person in the same class who was most certainly less amused was a girl named Miku.

"Ah, Hatsune-san, why don't you explain to Len what dictation actually is," instructs the teacher. Miku stands up in her chair and turns to where Len and Rin are both scowling unattractively at her.

"Dictation is the act of someone reading a paragraph of text without stopping and for you, as the student to write everything that person says correctly," says Miku smugly. She then sits down promptly and smiles in a narcissistic manner back at Len and Rin.

"Perfect, Miku. And that's what we'll be doing today after a bit of revision. Mind you, the test will be in _English_, so you should be hoping that you studied well enough."

The class groans and moans, but after a moment settles and quietens down, and everyone in the room (except for Rin and Len) took great note about the session in fear of the dictation test.

"We'll do a run through of different categories of words and English. I'm going to say the word in Japanese, say your name, and then you shall tell me the equivalent to the word I just said in English. Is that understood?"

"Firstly, we'll be doing family members."

"Haha – Hanako-san."

"Ano… Mother?" Replies Ushio Hanako, a quite and shy black-haired girl.

"Yes. Next, Imouto – Furukawa-san."

"Younger Sister," Replies Haru Furukawa, a cute and confidant red-head. Not naturally,of course.

Before long, the studying was over and everyone prepared for the dictation test. The teacher could only say,

"I know most of you will not be able to complete the test, however, the real thing I'm looking for is your ability to be able to assume the spelling placement and grammatical properties of English words. So do your best, and you should all do reasonably well." The teacher soothing smile echoes around the room, but not enough to completely calm everybody. There were also those who acted indifferently, like Rin and Len - who weren't concerned about how well they went. But the other person acting indifferently was Miku, who knew that she would able to pass the test easily - her cocky and smug smile explained it all.

"OK, so I'm going to read a paragraph of this page without pause. You must write everything that I say without fail. This may seem easy, but I assure you it most certainly is not. As I said, try your best."

With that, the teacher flicks to a page in her text book and begins to read.

"For those who pass, you shall bring great pride unto your families. You will be able to witness your Mother's smiling face of satisfaction. Those of you who do not pass will not bring happiness and pride upon your folk, but you bring the expectation to strive to excellence next time."

The teacher gives the students several minutes of grace to complete their writing, and she then says,

"OK. The test is now finished. Please hand your textbooks up to me and we'll discuss the results next week. With that..."

The shrill period bells chimes for the first time this morning and the teacher grins at her good timing,

"Class dismissed!" She exclaims, excusing the students from their seats.

As Rin, Len and Miku moved to their next period, completely unaware of each other's existence, Luka also moves to her next period. Luckily for Luka, though, its a free period. Every student's favourite thing.

Alternatively from most of the other students though, Luka makes her way through the bustling hoards of children to the library, to study. Luka couldn't be classified as 'dumb', but she wasn't gifted either. She instead was gifted with beautiful, straight, rose-coloured, soft as silk hair, dainty facial features, and a skinny but tall stature with expressive traits. Luka was one of the only female students to wear the full skirt as school uniform. Students at Greenslate were allowed to choose which uniform they wore within reason, and for the girls they had the option of a short or long skirt. Not to anyone's surprise, most - if not all - girls chose the short skirt. Because of the overstocking long skirts, they were also cheap. Luka took this opportunity to save on uniform costs, however no-one noticed because the long skirt really did look good on her. The standard Greenslate uniform for girls was a standard seifuku, or more commonly known as a sailor-style uniform. The shirts for girls were white and were restrained around the neck with a protruding and over-sized red bow. The skirts were navy blue with a white piping, similar to the socks - thigh-highs, white with blue hems. The boys wore a simple shirt with navy pants, and if they wished, were also allowed to wear a blazer. However no-one really opted in for that either, since the average climate in Greenslate was also very hot. Hair ribbons were permitted but not jewelry.

One who didn't obey the uniform rules - along with many of the other rules - was Meiko, a rebel who was up to no good almost all of the time. She wasn't someone to fear, and her crimes mainly consisted of vandalism, graffiti and shop-lifting. Her parents, both working in Overpayment offices in the next city over didn't expect – but knew their child was doing these sort of activities, and were none too impressed. But since Meiko left and was now over 18, she was not their concern, so they thought. While Meiko was still living with her parents, she also treated them poorly. Like they were worthless beings who were not worthy of her time. In this free period, which Meiko wasn't fully aware of, she was at the car-park as usual with her friends, all drinking and blowing masses of smoke onto one another. Meiko was wearing a short but flared black skirt and a tank top with a zipper, zipped down to the bottom of her top but still keeping the ensemble together. The zipper revealed a lot of skin, which 'bulged' out of the gap. Her top was short, and reached just below her chest. Around her neck was a dog-tag necklace, that rested in her chest area. Her hair was slickly styled to the side, and eyeliner and her signature dark red lipstick dominated her features. She also had knee-height black boots and dark and thin sunglasses. Her body was slender but built, and very toned. Anyone could tell that you'd be half-stupid to mess with her. In her hands was a silver flask of whiskey and a cigarette. Just as Meiko took a long breath of her cigarette, a black expensive-looking van rolled up beside the Ute Meiko and her gang where lazing on. Two men wearing high-class black suits and sunglasses exited the van and brushed their well-groomed hair to the side.

"Here comes trouble," one of the rebels remarks sarcastically.

"Are you Meiko?" The youngest and skinniest man asks Meiko, looking suspiciously at the men.

"Yeah. What the hell do you want?" She replies in a low scowl, blowing a long line of smoke into the wind and smirking at the two business men.

"We heard you could sing," the other man says.

"What?" Meiko blurts rudely, sloshing her whiskey on the ground.

"_We heard you could sing,_" says the man again, raising his voice.

"I heard you," Meiko spits, "who told you that?"

One of Meiko's friends begins laughing and pushes her shoulder playfully.

"So it's true?" He laughs.

Meiko spins around to her sketchy-looking friend at furrows her brows.

"Shut up or I'll thump 'ya" she snarls angrily, taking another breath of her cigarette and then turning back to the businessmen.

"Well, what do you want?" She asks the men again, holding their ground bravely.

"May we speak to you alone?" The skinnier man requests.

Meiko twists her mouth and looks to the friend on her right, who simply nods, like they're telepathic.

"You touch me and you're dead, got it?" Meiko snarls at them both. The both nods and gesture for Meiko to come forward. Meiko takes another breath of her cigarette and swankily walks over, thrusting her hips to each side dramatically.

The men then begin to engage in conversation.

"So, where'd you find that out, huh?" Asks Meiko again, curious.

"We saw you when you auditioned a few years ago at a singing festival. You were very good, and I expect you've gotten better. We've formed a new company, and we'd like you to work for us," the skinnier man proposes.

"No thanks," says Meiko blandly, not giving a second thought.

"May I ask you why you auditioned in the first place, Meiko-san?" Asks the other man.

"Don't call me Meiko-san," she says with a grimace, "it's Meiko."

"I auditioned because I needed the money and an easy job. I could sing, it was good pay. I thought, why not?" Continues Meiko.

"Well, Meiko," the skinnier man begins, remembering to refer to her as just 'Meiko', "this job is easy if you can sing, and has exceptional pay. We'll train you to do everything needed, and it will be easy. Why would you turn this opportunity down?"

Meiko rolls her eyes and draws another breath of smoke.

"Because I don't need it now," she replies.

"Meiko, can I ask another question?" Asks the other man, a bald and slightly build guy.

"Shoot," Meiko says nonchalantly.

"Do you have a house?"

"Hell no," replies Meiko with a chuckle.

"Then where do you live?"

"With Matt, an American guy. He's over there, real nice guy."

"Are you and Matt in a relationship?" He continues.

"No," says Meiko, drawing another breath.

"Does he like you staying at his ...place?"

"Well, I suppose. I do the cooking and tidy his room," Meiko states, but begins to laugh, "he sometimes says that I'm like his hot maid or something."

The two men squirm uncomfortably.

"Ever thought that Matt only had you there to be his 'hot maid'?" The skinnier man says.

"Well... no..."

"It sounds that way."

"How's it any of your business? Rack off."

"Sorry Meiko. But wouldn't you like to be earning cash, so you could be as many cigarettes and bottles of whiskey as you wanted? And to have a house of your own to have parties in?" The skinny man coaxes. His hair is slick and brown, and his smile is very genuine and white.

"I suppose that'd be cool..." Meiko says, a little sucked in.

"Why waste the chance? 6000 yen a week until you're trained, each record you bring out will earn you double. One record 12000 a week, two 24000, three 48000. It's good many, and a damn good deal," says the bald man.

Meiko raises her eyebrows at the prices.

"You have yourself a deal," says Meiko, offering her had revealing her black fingernails. Both of the men shake it warmly and Meiko yet again draws a breath.

"You're 18, yes?" The bald one asks.

"Of course, do I look any younger?" She spits jokingly.

"You don't look a day over 16," says the skinny coaxing business man with a toothy grin.

"Don't even try," Meiko says tiredly.

"What did you say the name of the company was?" Asks Meiko.

"We didn't ever say," recalls the bald man.

"Well then what is it anyway?"

"Crypton Future Media," answers the skinny man.

Meiko raises an eyebrow and blows a line of smoke into the wind, with a sly grin on her lips.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:**

**Welcome to Chapter 2. I quite like this story, and thought it would be nice to keep it rolling steadily for a while. Anyway, reviews with those lists would still be very much appreciated (pretty please!) and thanks to the few of you who have read Chapter 1 so far. Let's hope to make this one a hit :)**

**Notes:**

**Disclaimer: I do not own VOCALOID, Yamaha, Crypton Future Media Co., or any of their affiliated business or copyrighted materials, and all rights go to them. This is for entertainment and education use only and applies to all chapters of this story, yadda yadda yadda. **

**Close My Eyes - Song Discovery (lol) by: bit. ly/meikosongsmomo (no spaces)**

**Close My Eyes - Lyrics: bit. ly/linktoclosemyeyesblog (no spaces) **

**Close My Eyes - Translation: Google Translate and me!**

**- I'm sorry this is so short, and only visits Meiko and Luka, but I'll be doing a bigger chapter next time. Patience appreciated! -**

**See you soon!**

**M x**

**Chapter 2**

**A Twist of Melody**

**Meet, Miku, Len, Rin, Kaito, Meiko and Luka. They are your standard high-school students. …At least they think they are. With their varying personalities and relations,one thing will unite the gifted. But what could that be? It's your typical high-school story with a twist.**

Luka tip-toed her way into her apartment, atop of an old antiques store with a vacant, cat-loving landlord who lived below her. It was around half-past 3, and the moon was gleaming and glittering high in the deep blue sky. Not a star in sight.

Luka jangled her keys around in her hand, trying to find the smallest of all four. She slid it into the lock and pushed open her door, making a rusty, creaking wail as she stepped inside. She shut it, and slid the rusted gold chain on her chain-lock securely closed. The small apartment – or better described as simply a room – was something Luka loved and hated at the same time. In one way, she hated it because it was small and impractical and reminded her of her dead parents, but she loved it because it reminded her of her parents, was small and cosy, and was at least a place to sleep with low rent. Luka had been in situations where there was no place to sleep for the night. Yet she still managed to get mostly B-grades on her assignments, and wasn't malnourished.

She flicked on the white lights, which flickered and hissed as they came into bloom, and Luka made her way into her bedroom. Quickly undressing and getting into her nightwear, she slipped back into he living area to turn the lights off again, and promptly fell asleep shortly after.

Luka was unlucky in many ways. She had no parents, worked 2 jobs (only because that is what the law restricted her to), lived alone, had not many friends, lived in a small apartment, cried herself to sleep, had nightmares more often than dreams and starved occasionally. She wore the same clothes each day, and though she tried to preserve her school uniform – they were the nicest clothes she had, which resulted in her wearing them more frequently than need be.

Luka had a hard, lonely and troublesome life.

But for her, sometime soon – this was going to change.

Most people were asleep by this time, restoring their cells to be functional for the next day. One of the person who strayed from the norm in many ways was Meiko, who was dangerously wandering the streets, on the damp, cold and sharp Tuesday morning.

Of course it was not good in any way that Meiko was freely wandering around, sloshing her beloved whisky and blowing smoke into the mist, but with her brawn and fearlessness, she was brave enough to endure whatever happened to her. No worries. But the one exception was the strange happening on the day before. It didn't startle her, or terrify her, or interest her in the slightest – but she couldn't get it off her mind. She was constantly thinking, and replaying the scene in her mind over and over. More than that, she was trying to recall the day where she auditioned for something in relation to singing.

"_And what's you're name, little lady?" Said the tall, flaxen faired judge in the centre._

_Meiko, in her knee-length pink dress and __pigtails, shifted nervously. Almost forgetting her own name._

"_...Shion... Meiko..." She murmurs into the studded microphone in her hands._

"_What is Shion-san singing for us today?" Asks the judge to the left, a tall and muscular male judge._

"_A song I made myself. It's called 'Close my Eyes'."_

_The judges talk among themselves, leaving Meiko in suspense while the confirm the presence of the audio track._

"_The mixers are just receiving your music. While they are preparing, we'll ask you a few questions, Shion-san," says a proper looking business man, and the final judge._

_Meiko nods._

"_You can call me Meiko," she says._

"_OK, Meiko-san. How old are you?"_

"_I'm 15. I've been singing since I was a child, and decided that now I'm old enough, I may as well give this a shot," Meiko replies, her nervousness hard to detect any more._

"_I see. What an inspiration to see such a young girl here. There's a lot of competition, though. Do you think you can handle it?"_ _Says the flaxen-haired middle judge, smiling slickly for the cameras._

"_I hope so. I know that most people here are very talented, but I'll give it my all. That is my aim."_

"_What a wonderful attitude!" Cries the flaxen-head. The audience claps and cheers at Meiko's bravery._

"_To have written a whole song by yourself is quite an achievement. How did you come up with it?" Asks the brawny left-hand judge. _

"_I didn't. It came from my heart."_

_The audience awes and cheers her on, the cheery cherry red of Meiko's puffy cheeks making their heart thump with the sense of her innocence._

"_How cute are you!" Exclaims the flaxen-head again._

_Meiko blushes and chuckles nervously._

"_We're nearly done with the preparation. Is there anything you want to do if you win, Meiko-san?" says the professional-looking judge._

_Meiko has to ponder this, to the crowd's surprise. What did she want this for?_

"_...Well... I want to release songs that inlight and uplift people, I think. But I also want them to be songs to be easily empathised songs, about hardships in life, but also the remarkable ways we get over them. I just want to be known, and to touch people with the sound of my voice...?" Meiko says in a confused but insightful voice, shocking and inspiring the crowd into a frenzy of tears and cheers._

"_How beautiful. We're ready now, please sing when the music starts. Let's hope the song lives up to the greatness you've told us about it," says the same judge._

"_Thank you," replies Meiko shyly._

"_Good luck!" Calls the female judge. She nods, blushes, and waits for the music to commence._

_The soft Egyptian feeling music begins, and lifts the mike up to her chin, and braces to sing her heart out._

_Finally, that time comes, and the lyrics flow out of her mouth like a orchestra of angels,_

"

_It will be painful every time you touch  
I have followed, __I__ have led  
__I had forgotten this feeling,__  
__That I had s__trongly clasped_

Forever I love,  
Forever I believe,  
_The rebirth of the empty words I once had in my memories__  
Forever I love,  
Forever I will not forget,  
__I am__ there for you every day, __i__f you close your eye__s.___

I want to be around a little more  
Before dawn is approaching  
I do not let go _of things,__  
So that they are not washed away_

Forever I love,  
Forever I believe,  
_The rebirth of the empty words I once had in my memories___

Forever I love,  
Forever I will not forget,  
_I am__ there for you every day,_

_If you close your eyes._

"

_The crowd goes wild, and the judges stand up and applaud the young girls mature, deep and awe-inspiring and breathtaking voice. The profession judge, h__is hair slick and brown, and his smile very genuine and white, and the skinnier of all of them – is more interested in her than most of the others. Meiko stands motionless and paralysed, shocked at the massive reception._

Meiko smiles and thinks of this long-lost memory of her old, innocent but wise old self. She laughs to herself, and taking a breath from her cigarette, she thinks to herself:

_So that's why I was chosen, and what led me to what I am now – I suppose._

She exhales the smoke from her weak lungs and looks up to the cloud-shrouded moon, smiling to herself in the bitter darkness.

**A/N:**

**The End!**

**See you Chapter 3, don't forget to post those lists!**

**M xx**


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